Simply tragic and upsetting what the pharmaceutical and medical industry has done . Thank you for this write up and to Dr. Breggin . Unleash you own natural endorphins and enkephalins.
As with 90% of medicine, the disease or affliction is invented to fit the toxic and poison drugs that are marketed as cures. Which comes first? The disease or the drugs?
It's the poisoning with toxic man made chemicals that comes first. That wrecks the pristine body at some point and the medical mafia calls it disease. Their cure is more toxic poisons in the form of vaccines and drugs.
The fact that toxic drugs are called "medicines" tells you all you need to know if you bother to wake the heck up.
Reading articles like this makes me wonder why people see doctors in the first place. Or why they don't see the pattern after the first round. I remember when I was an educated liberal; I looked down on people who lived in rural areas as uneducated morons. However, living amongst them now, I see what education does to people. Those living in rural areas have a lot more common sense and a lot more creativity than those educated in four year institutions.
Education makes one narrow and removes the creative spark that solves a problem created by the economic system that favors siloing over creative problem solving. How many times is a child drugged because he (more boys than girls) is rambunctious, frequently either very intelligent in a non-linear way or suffering from poor nutrition by being addicted to sugar? Because our education system is siloed, teachers are not trained to deal with super smart or creative children with a lot of energy. So to settle them down, we drug them. Another creative mind destroyed by the experts whom we have given power over our lives or our children's lives.
So what if a teenaged girl cries a lot. Maybe she is super sensitive energetically and by labeling a normal activity, we have as a society given permission to ruin her brain and perhaps set a future creative thinker or an intuitive on a path to self destruction because people, both boys and girls are allowed to cry so many times before they are deemed mentally unstable.
Who defines normal? By medical definition, most professional basketball players are not 'normal' because they are OUTSIDE two standard deviation units from the mean of height of all people using a bell-shaped curve. Everybody who has watched a professional basketball player would agree that the player has a unique set of talents. What if we brainwashed these future players that they are not normal because they are too tall and too quick? Everybody has unique talents. How many of them are discouraged to the point where they hate themselves and are so brainwashed that they start believing that they are not normal? And why do we believe normal is an ideal goal?
How many of us dislike something about ourselves to try and change it? Boobs too small so we stick these silicon implants into breasts to enlarge them, too fat, so we starve ourselves so we can have a flat tummy and then spend tons of money to have six pack abs just so we can put on skimpy clothes. I am not a clothing fan, so I understand that clothing optional is something people may very well enjoy. I don't think we are ready because we have given away too much of our power to people whose knowledge of practical things is lacking and have an ideal of behavior and looks that most people even if they have the money can't meet.
I have not dared to read the whole article. When I met my husband, he had just gotten off Prozac. He said he had suffered depression due to a bad marriage. So had I. We got married but 2 years later he slipped away, then went to a psychiatrist, started taking yet other psych drugs, and finally committed suicide. I have to add, that he got very little help from his (adoptive) parents, I think they were part of the problem.
You're on the right track towards understanding, Ingrid. How much do you KNOW about his adoptive parents? How much do you KNOW about his birth, or biological parents? No, I am NOT blaming them, - blame does no good at all. But UNDERSTANDING the dynamics of all his interpersonal relationships is key to understanding him. And, please, when you get a chance, come back and read the whole article. This is just the "tip of the iceberg". May I suggest "Toxic Psychiatry", by Dr. Peter Breggin, to start? Or Mr. Robert Whitaker's excellent books? And "madinamerica"dot.com" is an excellent website for current topics. I'm sorry for the loss of your husband, but I can see this as a way to honor his memory, by understanding how he was victimized by "the medical-mental health system".... Thank-you, Ingrid.
Yup...there is NO blood test, NO x-ray, NO MRI, NO eye test, NO allergy tests, NOTHING that can see what is happening emotionally and give a clear dx or means of cure...which they aren't really looking for.
With the Covid-19 plandemic ushering in such oxymorons as 'asymptomatic sickness' (sick, but not sick?), I would not be surprised to find some sociopathic wordsmith come up with a pseudo-scientific equivalent of 'toxic neurotypical behavior' (dangerously normal?) — which, of course, must be cured with a newly developed, money-spinning pharmaceutical.
Thank you for this insightful post. If psychiatry's bible were buried 10 feet under, the world would be a better place. That people managed before its inception says something. Today the wizards of classifications actually 'research' the overlap between bipolar and what they call 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' (I call it puberty and young adulthood). As if cross sex hormones or anti depressants alone are not enough to cause massive mental crises. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11155656/
Sadly the public has been Brainwashed into believing that health and wellness come in a pill or injection...never from self and lifestyle changes that would help! People today simply do as told, take pills as told do what're a doc tells them to...but Never question a thing or use their brains to think for themselves. Trying to help, advocate, and educate them can be extremely difficult because of the cognitive dissonance involved. Time is running out on humanity...
My husband always inclined to label himself melancholy. Of course, all the psychological "tests" proved him so. Ten years after we married, he was diagnosed as bipolar. As I can tell from the history in your article, it was the popular diagnosis of the time. First prescribed Wellbutrin, then switched to lithium. Now it's back and forth to various drugs. And as he ages, yes he is succumbing to more frequent shifts of mania and sometimes violent outbursts of anger. From your article, I now see how he has been formulated by his own prescriptions. He's already lived longer than the so-called medical investigations predicted.
These revelations also tell me heartbreaking facts. He would probably worsen now that he's been on the drugs for over 30 years were he to wean himself off. I have suspected for many years that the "diagnoses" give credibility to a profession that used to be a counseling interaction. Now it's a pharmaceutical machine.
I've watched this process steal my husband. And there's nothing I can do about it.
Not to argue, but YES!, there IS "something you can do about it"! You can continue to educate yourself about these topics. You can learn what's REALLY wrong with our corrupted "health care" system. You can learn how to ease out of it. You can find other like-minded folks who will gladly help you get started on the better life they are living. You're not alone. No, I can't guarantee you'll get your stolen husband back. But from what you've said in your comment here, you're moving in the right direction towards true health and healing. I'd like to encourage your journey. You'll be glad you did!
When he was diagnosed in the 1990s, I went to the support groups, I read the books, researched the drugs. I tried to persuade him about coping strategies. I watched other couples give witness about the ways to deal with the behaviors. I was able to talk him into going to a couple of group meetings. But the true nature of what the Pharm industry was becoming was never discussed in those meetings. He saw some people acting out their "whatever-you-call-it," just don't call it "normal," and adamantly refused any suggestions to help us as a couple to thrive. In fact, the demands on coping fell to me, he would spend exorbitant amounts of money, then overdraw our account. I was forced to take over that responsibility. Same with insurance and disability problems, as well as hospitalization and observation issues. No one ever said "Let's try a different way." I was prepared by the support groups on how to deal with the issues as they arose. It is overwhelming, isn't it? But no one even suggested any alternatives. Please forward some information here, links and suggested reading if you can. At one point his former doctor put him on Effexor, then doubled the dose and my husband tried to strangle me. Now my oldest son has been put on Effexor. Another thing not told by doctors? If there are genuine personality traits, the medicines don't help with how this magnifies and worsens, like narcissism or social disorders. My doctor has said I care too much. Maybe she's right, but I don't know. I'm very tired.
Wow. Well. OK. I will do my best here, so please bear with, me, Jamie. Starting, as you write, "back in the 1990's", you were trying to deal with the "outside", or the "look" of things. The effects, but not the root causes. And, you assumed, as you were led to believe, that your husband "had" "it", - "it" being that "thing" called "bipolar". All those "meetings", and "books", and tips to "deal with the behaviors", were all just props in the play. Scripted.....
So, now that you know you were scammed, you are seeking a deeper UNDERSTANDING. Try thinking in terms of RELATIONSHIPS. What do you know about your husbands relationships as a child? How did those relationships inform him, and make him who he was? That's 1 part of the healing path. As a good place for more, please visit: "madinamerica.com"....that'll keep you busy for weeks, just from reading alone! Your FAITH has brought you this far, surely your faith will keep you going forever, right?.... It's ok to get tired, and stop and rest. Or just go around in circles for a whole, if you get lost. Just DO NOT, whatever else you do, turn around and go backwards! And, yes, please keep your sense of humor!
Also, try some "tactical prayers". Ask God for specific books, etc., to come into your life. How do you think the comment you're reading got written to you? See what I mean?....
I write a fair amount of online comments, but most are just for fun, or "fluff". But sometimes I read a real, from-the-heart comment. Yours is one of those. So I try my best to offer my "experience, strength, and hope", as I learned from working the 12 Steps of the A.A. recovery program. What I'm seeing the last few years, is a world-wide "awakening" of the people. I'm not talking about "woke", either. I mean "awakening", as in "waking up to the TRUTH", however difficult or painful that may be. Do you know about what's called "Rockefeller Medicine" & the "Flexner Report"? Do you know the TRUTH about "The Creature From Jekyll Island"? Unless you know all about those already, there's some more TRUTH for you to research. I truly believe that God wants us to KNOW the TRUTH, and to be HAPPY, and FREE, and to use our God-given FREE WILL in the best ways possible. But bad guys will do, what bad guys do, so....yes, there's bad in the world. This is getting a little off-topic.
But I checked out your substack, and you are WORTH IT, Jamie!....
Good, I can comment here, from decades of lived experience. Psychiatry is a fraudulent pseudoscience, a drugs racket, and a social control mechanism. It's 21st Century Phrenology, with potent neurotoxins. Psychiatry has done, and continues to do, FAR MORE HARM than good. So-called "mental illnesses", - such as so-called "bipolar" here, - are exactly as "real" as presents from Santa Claus, but NOT more real. The DSM-5 is best seen as a catalog of billing codes. EVERYTHING in it was either created or invented, NOTHING in it was discovered, - and the difference is crucial to understanding.....
Sure, you're free to believe that so-called "bipolar" is "real", but WHY WOULD YOU?....
A Post Script to this excellent article: If a sibling is diagnosed after age 18, the law protects their "privacy" in a way that makes castration look benign. No one is allowed to advocate or provide oversight to this "treatment". Initially, my sibling's treatment was open to me, as they had listed me as an "approved" confidant. As the "diagnosis" and "treatment" progressed, i.e. deteriorated, I was no longer privy to info. There was nothing anyone could do. When looking into guardianship, it seemed to be that guardianship could be granted, but with it was some governmental "oversight" that was foreboding in and of itself. It us a jungle in those hallowed halls.
I am a 67 year old gal who lived what you are describing. I medicated for 'bipolar' almost 27 years. I have paid a very high price. I find the info in this article to be my experience. Thank you for writing it. It makes me feel something unusual... understood.
“In the end, no one can remember how it all started and what life was like before the patient got a diagnosis." And when I asked my doctors to help me get off all of it, to see what was actually under all the mixed meds (some kind of still undiagnosed chronic fatigue type illness with high pain levels was tangled in there too) I was fired as a patient... I locked myself in my house alone for 2 years and methodically weaned myself off it all.
Guess what? I'm eccentric, always have been, but that's it. None of that shit was real, it was my emotional response to the sudden illness that took down my career, my friendships, my life. And because they diagnosed me as crazy, no one was interested in my actual physical problems any more "Uh huh, you are having fevers every day from 4:30 PM to 7 PM? You seeing that psychiatrist any time soon?" and since it was "a diagnosed metal illness" I could get no therapy type help to figure out how to cope with the reality of my whole life imploding.
The sheer RAGE that this article brought up in me, proof that what I have said for years about the drugs causing my problems, is going to echo in my head for the next few days. I lost years of my life, and everything I had worked for. I'm now disabled, estranged fro my family, have a hard time with normal people as they haven't had their life implode and can't relate.... I was broken badly by it all, but I'm not bipolar....
And incidentally, the reason I believed them at all was I started hallucinating BADLY and after three months of what felt like bad acid that wouldn't quit, I ended up at a shrink. Wasn't till many years later I found out the antibiotic that seemed to work best on my health stuff that I took a lot of (9 runs back to back at one point) had a side effect that came out later... severe persistent hallucinations. (At this point, quite a few antibiotics have that listed as a very rare effect, read the paper that comes with your meds CLOSELY!) As I was getting off the psych and pain meds, and figuring out what had happened, I kept wondering "What started the hallucinations?" 8 years after I was off it all I found out, and I cried. I lost 15 years of my life to that....
And I still fight with whatever the hell the physical thing is. Something in the chronic fatigue/lupus/lyme type illness spectrum, that I work with on my own. Which adds to the current social isolation....
Incidentally, and it may be useful to others, I also have figured out I'm highly reactive emotionally and physically to solar storms and barometric changes. I watch other people and I can see that a LOT of people are reacting the same times i am, but just aren't aware of it. Worth learning more about if you feel like you are impacted randomly sometimes. Makes it less random if you can say "I'm probably not that mad about this, there is a solar storm running, I'll wait before I respond, see if it goes away." It very often does, goes down right as the storm (or barometric pressure change swing) stops.
It's quite possible this sensitivity is at least partly caused by the residual heavy metals in my body from all the meds.
Finally! Someone else who is subject to barometric pressure systems, too! Early spring & early fall have forever caused ups & downs in my mood, activity capabilities & erratic sleep cycles. Diagnosis has always been "S.A.D." I've always said it wasn't about lack of sunlight.. that it was about lack of humidity & low pressure systems. Spring & fall have such varying pressure systems that it wreaks havoc on my psyche! Of course I went the antidepressant route to stabilize myself & to aid in episodes of utter sadness, which began from childhood traumas. On & off those things for years. Even I noticed episodes of almost feeling like I was on stimulants at times, which I actually enjoyed since I was able to accomplish much put off tasks. Then the lows would come, even when on antidepressants. I'm done with those.. weaned myself off completely & just deal with some days when barometric pressure is low, feeling sluggish. I recognize this now & know a high pressure system will come soon, so just wait it out. Not a big deal, now that I understand. It's so rare to hear of anyone else who is sensitive to these types of things! The world's full of anomalies & people fall into that category, too.
Thank you, Delightful, for bringing that up! This entire article has been fascinating & I know now what happened to a friend of mine who ended uo bipolar due to antidepressants. I wish he were still alive so I could share this entire writing with him.
I can't click like on comments here, I'm sorry, I would if I could. I know a LOT of people who are pressure sensitive, we just don't talk about it much because "normal" people think you are crazy.
At this point in my life I know that the pressure dropping will make my emotions, especially negative ones, overwhelming, and pressure going up increases my physical agitation and pain. So on pressure drop days I try to make them no people days, on pressure up days I count on getting a lot of work done due to the agitation. I do my best to work WITH the pressure, not let it trash me.
I think this is normal mammal behavior, and most town and city dwelling people have just forgotten about it. If you think about it, incoming storm awareness was a MAJOR thing in earlier cultures, and knowing ahead of time to do things like get your animals under cover was a serious asset. I have wondered if those of us who are more aware are of a less urban ancestry, I know I am the product of farm dwellers, not urban residents.
Windy.com has a "pressure" setting, in the "more layers" section, that is VERY useful for knowing what is upcoming., I use it for scheduling.
HUGS to you, I am always happy to meet others, but I always sorrow that there are SO MANY of us who have been trashed by all of this, as we don't fit into the medical model the way this culture wants us to.
Thank you, Delightful! I now have the http://Windy.com app installed & will utilize its pressure feature. Thank you for that info.
As far a family history, I don't believe I have but a smattering of landowners. Non-farming types of landowners, from what I know. English style. My family history has been formed by many lies, so I have no idea as to what's true or not. Regardless, there is clearly something within my genetic make-up that causes pressure sensitivity in the way I navigate the days.
I am rather stunned there are so many pressure sensitive folks out there. I may actually know some who simply haven't come forth or perhaps they may not feel it in the extreme enough to mention it.
Again, thanks for first posting then responding to my post. Just want to add that it's probably a good thing to not have this fit into any medical model. Heaven knows, they'd come up with a pill or other treatment for it! What could possibly go wrong? Best to be guided by others & (for me) God to find those paths less traveled.
I want to also include observations about other natural events that some are sensitive to, since you brought up weather. There are many more senses than the 5 we have been taught since childhood. One early morning I began to feel definite tremors and vibrations in my feet. Odd? Yeah! Turned out that a moderate earthquake over 500 miles away was reported being felt by "some" but generally, the reporting was ignored until the next time I felt it and woke to hanging clothes swinging! Still people were surprised it happened, they didn't feel it and the reporters wink-winked at the "people" who did feel it. Some people are naturally true to compass. Some can feel the pressure changes automatically. Some can smell the ozone in the air when a storm is coming long before it arrives. Some can feel blood pressure changes through the vessels in their eyes. And what about those who know the approximate time without looking at the clock? I sense immediate presence of radio waves. There are a lot of us that have "natural" instincts that go unrecognized. And with those instincts come judgments that doctors feel the need to medicate. If something feels off environmentally, it may be your senses alerting you to an event others can't feel.
I'm reminded of animal behaviors in anticipation of natural disasters--how do seal know to get away from an ice floe long before it cracks open? How do birds know to seek cover without a storm cloud in the sky, especially tornadoes? There's a lot we don't know but medical industries would rather medicate us for hallucinations than investigate the occurrences.
A relative of mine was having emotional issues. There was no counseling - just straight to meds. She told the doctor issues with the meds, and instead of taking her off - or more, an additional med was added. By the end she was on 9 meds. My daughter helped her partner wean off of these meds 1 or 2 at a time. She still has anxiety issues, but has found coping skills that handle most of it for her. She is healthy and works full time & gas for years.
Thank you so much for this article. After reading the comments, I finally decided to forward it to my husband. When I joined Substack, I was desperate for conversations founded in TRUTH without all the attacks and hatred. This platform makes monitoring those issues manageable. And articles like this one make interaction so helpful and better our lives.
Thank you so much for this! PLEASE give us more research into this topic, focusing on causes and natural remedies. It is SO hard to find a medical professional who doesn’t automatically reach for the pill bottle!
Yes! Normal is not there! People that feel do not exist in the drug world! They must be silenced! Especially if they try to communicate. They are ignored and condemned to therapy with no real communication with the people they need to be talking with. Then the drugs do their thing with no guidance into the persons’ real issue!!! Many new health issues arise for a never ending business!!!
It was simply a 'business marketing' move...cure nothing but create more chronic lifelong illnesses. The MO of all allopathic care from Pharma to providers...keep them coming back. For ever NEW illness documented and NEW and Lucrative business is created...and nobody wants to go out of business!
Simply tragic and upsetting what the pharmaceutical and medical industry has done . Thank you for this write up and to Dr. Breggin . Unleash you own natural endorphins and enkephalins.
As with 90% of medicine, the disease or affliction is invented to fit the toxic and poison drugs that are marketed as cures. Which comes first? The disease or the drugs?
It's the poisoning with toxic man made chemicals that comes first. That wrecks the pristine body at some point and the medical mafia calls it disease. Their cure is more toxic poisons in the form of vaccines and drugs.
The fact that toxic drugs are called "medicines" tells you all you need to know if you bother to wake the heck up.
Reading articles like this makes me wonder why people see doctors in the first place. Or why they don't see the pattern after the first round. I remember when I was an educated liberal; I looked down on people who lived in rural areas as uneducated morons. However, living amongst them now, I see what education does to people. Those living in rural areas have a lot more common sense and a lot more creativity than those educated in four year institutions.
Education makes one narrow and removes the creative spark that solves a problem created by the economic system that favors siloing over creative problem solving. How many times is a child drugged because he (more boys than girls) is rambunctious, frequently either very intelligent in a non-linear way or suffering from poor nutrition by being addicted to sugar? Because our education system is siloed, teachers are not trained to deal with super smart or creative children with a lot of energy. So to settle them down, we drug them. Another creative mind destroyed by the experts whom we have given power over our lives or our children's lives.
So what if a teenaged girl cries a lot. Maybe she is super sensitive energetically and by labeling a normal activity, we have as a society given permission to ruin her brain and perhaps set a future creative thinker or an intuitive on a path to self destruction because people, both boys and girls are allowed to cry so many times before they are deemed mentally unstable.
Who defines normal? By medical definition, most professional basketball players are not 'normal' because they are OUTSIDE two standard deviation units from the mean of height of all people using a bell-shaped curve. Everybody who has watched a professional basketball player would agree that the player has a unique set of talents. What if we brainwashed these future players that they are not normal because they are too tall and too quick? Everybody has unique talents. How many of them are discouraged to the point where they hate themselves and are so brainwashed that they start believing that they are not normal? And why do we believe normal is an ideal goal?
How many of us dislike something about ourselves to try and change it? Boobs too small so we stick these silicon implants into breasts to enlarge them, too fat, so we starve ourselves so we can have a flat tummy and then spend tons of money to have six pack abs just so we can put on skimpy clothes. I am not a clothing fan, so I understand that clothing optional is something people may very well enjoy. I don't think we are ready because we have given away too much of our power to people whose knowledge of practical things is lacking and have an ideal of behavior and looks that most people even if they have the money can't meet.
We have programmed patterning. That is my explanation. I blindly followed the path of what my social structure provided.
They lied. You trusted.
They lied and Nobody questioned a thing!
The educational system has been developed from a Prussian model that tries to produce efficient wage-slaves for technological society.
I have not dared to read the whole article. When I met my husband, he had just gotten off Prozac. He said he had suffered depression due to a bad marriage. So had I. We got married but 2 years later he slipped away, then went to a psychiatrist, started taking yet other psych drugs, and finally committed suicide. I have to add, that he got very little help from his (adoptive) parents, I think they were part of the problem.
You're on the right track towards understanding, Ingrid. How much do you KNOW about his adoptive parents? How much do you KNOW about his birth, or biological parents? No, I am NOT blaming them, - blame does no good at all. But UNDERSTANDING the dynamics of all his interpersonal relationships is key to understanding him. And, please, when you get a chance, come back and read the whole article. This is just the "tip of the iceberg". May I suggest "Toxic Psychiatry", by Dr. Peter Breggin, to start? Or Mr. Robert Whitaker's excellent books? And "madinamerica"dot.com" is an excellent website for current topics. I'm sorry for the loss of your husband, but I can see this as a way to honor his memory, by understanding how he was victimized by "the medical-mental health system".... Thank-you, Ingrid.
Psychiatrists who prescribe drugs for mental disorders seem little better than witch doctors. They might be worse.
Yup...there is NO blood test, NO x-ray, NO MRI, NO eye test, NO allergy tests, NOTHING that can see what is happening emotionally and give a clear dx or means of cure...which they aren't really looking for.
With the Covid-19 plandemic ushering in such oxymorons as 'asymptomatic sickness' (sick, but not sick?), I would not be surprised to find some sociopathic wordsmith come up with a pseudo-scientific equivalent of 'toxic neurotypical behavior' (dangerously normal?) — which, of course, must be cured with a newly developed, money-spinning pharmaceutical.
Thank you for this insightful post. If psychiatry's bible were buried 10 feet under, the world would be a better place. That people managed before its inception says something. Today the wizards of classifications actually 'research' the overlap between bipolar and what they call 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' (I call it puberty and young adulthood). As if cross sex hormones or anti depressants alone are not enough to cause massive mental crises. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11155656/
We need more Dr. Breggins in this world.
Sadly the public has been Brainwashed into believing that health and wellness come in a pill or injection...never from self and lifestyle changes that would help! People today simply do as told, take pills as told do what're a doc tells them to...but Never question a thing or use their brains to think for themselves. Trying to help, advocate, and educate them can be extremely difficult because of the cognitive dissonance involved. Time is running out on humanity...
This is INFURIATING!!!!!
My husband always inclined to label himself melancholy. Of course, all the psychological "tests" proved him so. Ten years after we married, he was diagnosed as bipolar. As I can tell from the history in your article, it was the popular diagnosis of the time. First prescribed Wellbutrin, then switched to lithium. Now it's back and forth to various drugs. And as he ages, yes he is succumbing to more frequent shifts of mania and sometimes violent outbursts of anger. From your article, I now see how he has been formulated by his own prescriptions. He's already lived longer than the so-called medical investigations predicted.
These revelations also tell me heartbreaking facts. He would probably worsen now that he's been on the drugs for over 30 years were he to wean himself off. I have suspected for many years that the "diagnoses" give credibility to a profession that used to be a counseling interaction. Now it's a pharmaceutical machine.
I've watched this process steal my husband. And there's nothing I can do about it.
Not to argue, but YES!, there IS "something you can do about it"! You can continue to educate yourself about these topics. You can learn what's REALLY wrong with our corrupted "health care" system. You can learn how to ease out of it. You can find other like-minded folks who will gladly help you get started on the better life they are living. You're not alone. No, I can't guarantee you'll get your stolen husband back. But from what you've said in your comment here, you're moving in the right direction towards true health and healing. I'd like to encourage your journey. You'll be glad you did!
When he was diagnosed in the 1990s, I went to the support groups, I read the books, researched the drugs. I tried to persuade him about coping strategies. I watched other couples give witness about the ways to deal with the behaviors. I was able to talk him into going to a couple of group meetings. But the true nature of what the Pharm industry was becoming was never discussed in those meetings. He saw some people acting out their "whatever-you-call-it," just don't call it "normal," and adamantly refused any suggestions to help us as a couple to thrive. In fact, the demands on coping fell to me, he would spend exorbitant amounts of money, then overdraw our account. I was forced to take over that responsibility. Same with insurance and disability problems, as well as hospitalization and observation issues. No one ever said "Let's try a different way." I was prepared by the support groups on how to deal with the issues as they arose. It is overwhelming, isn't it? But no one even suggested any alternatives. Please forward some information here, links and suggested reading if you can. At one point his former doctor put him on Effexor, then doubled the dose and my husband tried to strangle me. Now my oldest son has been put on Effexor. Another thing not told by doctors? If there are genuine personality traits, the medicines don't help with how this magnifies and worsens, like narcissism or social disorders. My doctor has said I care too much. Maybe she's right, but I don't know. I'm very tired.
Wow. Well. OK. I will do my best here, so please bear with, me, Jamie. Starting, as you write, "back in the 1990's", you were trying to deal with the "outside", or the "look" of things. The effects, but not the root causes. And, you assumed, as you were led to believe, that your husband "had" "it", - "it" being that "thing" called "bipolar". All those "meetings", and "books", and tips to "deal with the behaviors", were all just props in the play. Scripted.....
So, now that you know you were scammed, you are seeking a deeper UNDERSTANDING. Try thinking in terms of RELATIONSHIPS. What do you know about your husbands relationships as a child? How did those relationships inform him, and make him who he was? That's 1 part of the healing path. As a good place for more, please visit: "madinamerica.com"....that'll keep you busy for weeks, just from reading alone! Your FAITH has brought you this far, surely your faith will keep you going forever, right?.... It's ok to get tired, and stop and rest. Or just go around in circles for a whole, if you get lost. Just DO NOT, whatever else you do, turn around and go backwards! And, yes, please keep your sense of humor!
Also, try some "tactical prayers". Ask God for specific books, etc., to come into your life. How do you think the comment you're reading got written to you? See what I mean?....
Thank you, God bless you!!
I write a fair amount of online comments, but most are just for fun, or "fluff". But sometimes I read a real, from-the-heart comment. Yours is one of those. So I try my best to offer my "experience, strength, and hope", as I learned from working the 12 Steps of the A.A. recovery program. What I'm seeing the last few years, is a world-wide "awakening" of the people. I'm not talking about "woke", either. I mean "awakening", as in "waking up to the TRUTH", however difficult or painful that may be. Do you know about what's called "Rockefeller Medicine" & the "Flexner Report"? Do you know the TRUTH about "The Creature From Jekyll Island"? Unless you know all about those already, there's some more TRUTH for you to research. I truly believe that God wants us to KNOW the TRUTH, and to be HAPPY, and FREE, and to use our God-given FREE WILL in the best ways possible. But bad guys will do, what bad guys do, so....yes, there's bad in the world. This is getting a little off-topic.
But I checked out your substack, and you are WORTH IT, Jamie!....
Good, I can comment here, from decades of lived experience. Psychiatry is a fraudulent pseudoscience, a drugs racket, and a social control mechanism. It's 21st Century Phrenology, with potent neurotoxins. Psychiatry has done, and continues to do, FAR MORE HARM than good. So-called "mental illnesses", - such as so-called "bipolar" here, - are exactly as "real" as presents from Santa Claus, but NOT more real. The DSM-5 is best seen as a catalog of billing codes. EVERYTHING in it was either created or invented, NOTHING in it was discovered, - and the difference is crucial to understanding.....
Sure, you're free to believe that so-called "bipolar" is "real", but WHY WOULD YOU?....
A Post Script to this excellent article: If a sibling is diagnosed after age 18, the law protects their "privacy" in a way that makes castration look benign. No one is allowed to advocate or provide oversight to this "treatment". Initially, my sibling's treatment was open to me, as they had listed me as an "approved" confidant. As the "diagnosis" and "treatment" progressed, i.e. deteriorated, I was no longer privy to info. There was nothing anyone could do. When looking into guardianship, it seemed to be that guardianship could be granted, but with it was some governmental "oversight" that was foreboding in and of itself. It us a jungle in those hallowed halls.
I am a 67 year old gal who lived what you are describing. I medicated for 'bipolar' almost 27 years. I have paid a very high price. I find the info in this article to be my experience. Thank you for writing it. It makes me feel something unusual... understood.
“In the end, no one can remember how it all started and what life was like before the patient got a diagnosis." And when I asked my doctors to help me get off all of it, to see what was actually under all the mixed meds (some kind of still undiagnosed chronic fatigue type illness with high pain levels was tangled in there too) I was fired as a patient... I locked myself in my house alone for 2 years and methodically weaned myself off it all.
Guess what? I'm eccentric, always have been, but that's it. None of that shit was real, it was my emotional response to the sudden illness that took down my career, my friendships, my life. And because they diagnosed me as crazy, no one was interested in my actual physical problems any more "Uh huh, you are having fevers every day from 4:30 PM to 7 PM? You seeing that psychiatrist any time soon?" and since it was "a diagnosed metal illness" I could get no therapy type help to figure out how to cope with the reality of my whole life imploding.
The sheer RAGE that this article brought up in me, proof that what I have said for years about the drugs causing my problems, is going to echo in my head for the next few days. I lost years of my life, and everything I had worked for. I'm now disabled, estranged fro my family, have a hard time with normal people as they haven't had their life implode and can't relate.... I was broken badly by it all, but I'm not bipolar....
And incidentally, the reason I believed them at all was I started hallucinating BADLY and after three months of what felt like bad acid that wouldn't quit, I ended up at a shrink. Wasn't till many years later I found out the antibiotic that seemed to work best on my health stuff that I took a lot of (9 runs back to back at one point) had a side effect that came out later... severe persistent hallucinations. (At this point, quite a few antibiotics have that listed as a very rare effect, read the paper that comes with your meds CLOSELY!) As I was getting off the psych and pain meds, and figuring out what had happened, I kept wondering "What started the hallucinations?" 8 years after I was off it all I found out, and I cried. I lost 15 years of my life to that....
And I still fight with whatever the hell the physical thing is. Something in the chronic fatigue/lupus/lyme type illness spectrum, that I work with on my own. Which adds to the current social isolation....
Incidentally, and it may be useful to others, I also have figured out I'm highly reactive emotionally and physically to solar storms and barometric changes. I watch other people and I can see that a LOT of people are reacting the same times i am, but just aren't aware of it. Worth learning more about if you feel like you are impacted randomly sometimes. Makes it less random if you can say "I'm probably not that mad about this, there is a solar storm running, I'll wait before I respond, see if it goes away." It very often does, goes down right as the storm (or barometric pressure change swing) stops.
It's quite possible this sensitivity is at least partly caused by the residual heavy metals in my body from all the meds.
Finally! Someone else who is subject to barometric pressure systems, too! Early spring & early fall have forever caused ups & downs in my mood, activity capabilities & erratic sleep cycles. Diagnosis has always been "S.A.D." I've always said it wasn't about lack of sunlight.. that it was about lack of humidity & low pressure systems. Spring & fall have such varying pressure systems that it wreaks havoc on my psyche! Of course I went the antidepressant route to stabilize myself & to aid in episodes of utter sadness, which began from childhood traumas. On & off those things for years. Even I noticed episodes of almost feeling like I was on stimulants at times, which I actually enjoyed since I was able to accomplish much put off tasks. Then the lows would come, even when on antidepressants. I'm done with those.. weaned myself off completely & just deal with some days when barometric pressure is low, feeling sluggish. I recognize this now & know a high pressure system will come soon, so just wait it out. Not a big deal, now that I understand. It's so rare to hear of anyone else who is sensitive to these types of things! The world's full of anomalies & people fall into that category, too.
Thank you, Delightful, for bringing that up! This entire article has been fascinating & I know now what happened to a friend of mine who ended uo bipolar due to antidepressants. I wish he were still alive so I could share this entire writing with him.
I can't click like on comments here, I'm sorry, I would if I could. I know a LOT of people who are pressure sensitive, we just don't talk about it much because "normal" people think you are crazy.
At this point in my life I know that the pressure dropping will make my emotions, especially negative ones, overwhelming, and pressure going up increases my physical agitation and pain. So on pressure drop days I try to make them no people days, on pressure up days I count on getting a lot of work done due to the agitation. I do my best to work WITH the pressure, not let it trash me.
I think this is normal mammal behavior, and most town and city dwelling people have just forgotten about it. If you think about it, incoming storm awareness was a MAJOR thing in earlier cultures, and knowing ahead of time to do things like get your animals under cover was a serious asset. I have wondered if those of us who are more aware are of a less urban ancestry, I know I am the product of farm dwellers, not urban residents.
Windy.com has a "pressure" setting, in the "more layers" section, that is VERY useful for knowing what is upcoming., I use it for scheduling.
HUGS to you, I am always happy to meet others, but I always sorrow that there are SO MANY of us who have been trashed by all of this, as we don't fit into the medical model the way this culture wants us to.
Thank you, Delightful! I now have the http://Windy.com app installed & will utilize its pressure feature. Thank you for that info.
As far a family history, I don't believe I have but a smattering of landowners. Non-farming types of landowners, from what I know. English style. My family history has been formed by many lies, so I have no idea as to what's true or not. Regardless, there is clearly something within my genetic make-up that causes pressure sensitivity in the way I navigate the days.
I am rather stunned there are so many pressure sensitive folks out there. I may actually know some who simply haven't come forth or perhaps they may not feel it in the extreme enough to mention it.
Again, thanks for first posting then responding to my post. Just want to add that it's probably a good thing to not have this fit into any medical model. Heaven knows, they'd come up with a pill or other treatment for it! What could possibly go wrong? Best to be guided by others & (for me) God to find those paths less traveled.
Hugs back!
I want to also include observations about other natural events that some are sensitive to, since you brought up weather. There are many more senses than the 5 we have been taught since childhood. One early morning I began to feel definite tremors and vibrations in my feet. Odd? Yeah! Turned out that a moderate earthquake over 500 miles away was reported being felt by "some" but generally, the reporting was ignored until the next time I felt it and woke to hanging clothes swinging! Still people were surprised it happened, they didn't feel it and the reporters wink-winked at the "people" who did feel it. Some people are naturally true to compass. Some can feel the pressure changes automatically. Some can smell the ozone in the air when a storm is coming long before it arrives. Some can feel blood pressure changes through the vessels in their eyes. And what about those who know the approximate time without looking at the clock? I sense immediate presence of radio waves. There are a lot of us that have "natural" instincts that go unrecognized. And with those instincts come judgments that doctors feel the need to medicate. If something feels off environmentally, it may be your senses alerting you to an event others can't feel.
I'm reminded of animal behaviors in anticipation of natural disasters--how do seal know to get away from an ice floe long before it cracks open? How do birds know to seek cover without a storm cloud in the sky, especially tornadoes? There's a lot we don't know but medical industries would rather medicate us for hallucinations than investigate the occurrences.
A relative of mine was having emotional issues. There was no counseling - just straight to meds. She told the doctor issues with the meds, and instead of taking her off - or more, an additional med was added. By the end she was on 9 meds. My daughter helped her partner wean off of these meds 1 or 2 at a time. She still has anxiety issues, but has found coping skills that handle most of it for her. She is healthy and works full time & gas for years.
Thank you so much for this article. After reading the comments, I finally decided to forward it to my husband. When I joined Substack, I was desperate for conversations founded in TRUTH without all the attacks and hatred. This platform makes monitoring those issues manageable. And articles like this one make interaction so helpful and better our lives.
Thank you so much for this! PLEASE give us more research into this topic, focusing on causes and natural remedies. It is SO hard to find a medical professional who doesn’t automatically reach for the pill bottle!
Sadly so true and not surpising given that 'Medical professional' anagrams to
- dismal fecal poisoner
https://baldmichael.substack.com/p/medical-profession-whats-in-the-phrase?utm_source=publication-search
Yes! Normal is not there! People that feel do not exist in the drug world! They must be silenced! Especially if they try to communicate. They are ignored and condemned to therapy with no real communication with the people they need to be talking with. Then the drugs do their thing with no guidance into the persons’ real issue!!! Many new health issues arise for a never ending business!!!
It was simply a 'business marketing' move...cure nothing but create more chronic lifelong illnesses. The MO of all allopathic care from Pharma to providers...keep them coming back. For ever NEW illness documented and NEW and Lucrative business is created...and nobody wants to go out of business!